This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 11-122001, filed Apr. 28, 1999, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a computer system and a content protect method applied to the computer system.
In recent years, various personal computers applicable to multimedia have been developed in accordance with developments in computer technology. In personal computers of this kind, various digital contents such as image data, music data, and the like can be downloaded and used via networks.
Those digital contents can be downloaded without degrading quality by adopting digital coding techniques such as MPEG2, MP3, and the like. However, in view of protection of copyrights, demands have recently arisen for a technique for protecting digital contents against improper use.
However, since a personal computer is basically a system which has an open architecture, it is actually difficult to protect digital contents in personal computers. This is because digital contents are dealt with as files in personal computers and the files can be freely copied or moved basically. In particular, hard disk drives used as storage devices for personal computers have open specifications, and it is therefore difficult to conceal digital contents recorded in hard disk drives. Consequently, after a digital content downloaded from the internet is once recorded into a hard disk drive, the digital content can be freely copied from this hard disk to another medium and then put to use.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a computer system and a content protect method which are capable of protecting contents against improper use even when contents are recorded on an open recording medium such as a hard disk drive, so that both utility and protection of digital contents can be improved.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer system which is capable of recording a content onto a recording medium, comprising: ID storage means for storing an ID corresponding to the recording medium to manage the content to be stored thereon, the ID storage means being separately provided from the recording medium; and content management means for enciphering the content by referring to an ID corresponding to the recording medium from the ID storage means and recording the enciphered content onto the recording medium.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer system which is capable of recording a content onto a recording medium, comprising: ID storage means for storing control information for limiting reproducing/copying/moving of the content and an ID corresponding to the recording medium, the ID storage means being separately provided from the recording medium; and content management means for, when a request is issued for reproducing the content recorded on the recording medium, copying the content to another recording medium, or moving the content to another recording medium, for permitting or inhibiting execution of processing corresponding to the request, based on the control information and the ID.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer system comprising: device ID storage means for storing a device ID used for safety management of contents; and content management means capable of managing enciphering/decoding of a content, for each recording medium onto which the content is to be recorded, with use of a medium ID specific to the recording medium onto which the content is to be recorded, for managing the enciphering/decoding of the content with use of the device ID if the content is recorded onto a recording medium which does not have a medium ID.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer system comprising: device ID storage means for storing a device ID used for safety management of contents; and content management means capable of managing enciphering/decoding of a content, for each recording medium onto which the content is to be recorded, with use of a medium ID specific to the recording medium onto which the content is to be recorded, for managing the enciphering/decoding of the content with use of the device ID if the content is recorded onto a recording medium which does not have a medium ID, wherein the device ID of the device ID storage means is managed by a BIOS of the computer system, the content management means obtains the device ID from the BIOS upon identification from the BIOS, the content is added with control information for limiting reproducing/copying/moving of the content, the BIOS manages code data for detecting alteration to the control information, and if a content recorded on a recording medium which does not have a medium ID is copied to another recording medium, control information in the recording medium which does not have a medium ID is updated such that a value indicating possible copy operations allowed for the content is decremented by one, the content recorded on the recording medium which does not have a medium ID and the updated control information are copied to the another recording medium, and a value of the code data for detecting alteration is updated based on the updated control information.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer system capable of dealing with contents and comprising content management means for performing safety management of the contents, the content management including: means for, when a content is recorded onto a recording medium having a medium ID, enciphering the content or an encipher key thereof with use of the medium ID and recording the content onto the recording medium; and means for, when a content is recorded onto a recording medium which does not have a medium ID, enciphering the content or an encipher key thereof with use of a device ID specific to the computer system managed by a BIOS of the computer system, and recording the content onto the recording medium which does not have a medium ID.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer system comprising: a system program for controlling of the computer system, the system program managing a device ID specific to the computer system; and content management system for managing enciphering/decoding of a content to be recorded onto a recording medium of the computer system, with use of the device ID specific to the computer system.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer system having a device ID specific to the computer system, comprising content management means for obtaining the device ID from the computer system and for managing enciphering/decoding contents to be recorded on a recording medium of the computer system.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a content protect method applied to a computer system capable of dealing with contents to protect the contents against improper use, comprising: if a content is recorded onto a recording medium having a medium ID, enciphering the content or an encipher key thereof with use of the medium ID and recording the content onto the recording medium having the medium ID; and if a content is recorded onto a recording medium which does not have a medium ID, enciphering the content or an encipher key thereof with use of a device ID specific to the computer system managed by a BIOS in the computer system and recording the content onto the recording medium which does not have a medium ID.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a content protect method for protecting contents dealt with in a computer system having a device ID specific to the computer system against improper use, comprising: obtaining the device ID from the computer system; and managing enciphering/decoding of a content to be recorded onto a recording medium of the computer system with use of the device ID.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a content protect method for protecting contents dealt with in a computer system against improper use, comprising: managing a device ID specific to the computer system by a system program for hardware control of the computer system; obtaining the device ID from the system program; and managing enciphering/decoding of a content to be recorded onto a recording medium of the computer system with use of the device ID.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.